The grace of remembering [Philippines]:
Dear Ceres,
I've just read "Disappeared." Was this so long ago, you ask. Yes, it was, because from this remove, I can't recall if I ever thanked you for the story that you reprinted today. You see, the women in the story were the inspiration -- though I find that word insipid in this case; it was more of provocation, instigation -- for my poem "Brave Woman."
It was not an easy poem to write, and it took me some time to get it to move. That happened only after I let go of my third-person, omniscient-point-of-view voice, and allowed the mother to speak and tell the story herself. (Did I say "allow"? It felt more like "compelled.") It was her story, after all. The poem belonged to her.
"Brave Woman" was first published in 1983, if I remember correctly, and it was last published (as far as I know) in 2003, as part of an anthology of anti-Iraq war poems ("Poets Against the War," edited by Sam Hamill, published by Thunder's Mouth Press/Nation Books). I believe it is also in some textbooks.
But to tell you the truth, I am a little tired of it. Sometimes I wish I could bury it, lock it away with other juvenilia. How could I let it go, though?
This entry was posted by Ivy
on Friday, June 08, 2007 at 11:59 AM.
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